A QUESTION

Question for the atheists...
Is it really true that you think we are just food for the worms?
SO is it ok for you, that when you die, your body will be thrown into a dump site?
Anyway, it don't possess a soul. We don't have to live for 'something', so our life ends at death, and we are 'nothing' after death. A picture would be enough as 'memory'.
Just curious.
Thank you. ;-).

Replies to This Discussion

Well, considering that my plans are for my body to be cremated and then tossed off somewhere in the woods, I personally would be fine with a dump site as my final resting place. Especially if it is being closed off, capped, and returned to a more natural state.

I view this as a far better alternative than spending several thousand dollars to buy an expensive box, a concrete box to put it in, and a fancy stone to mark my burial spot. In 100 years the stone will be there, forgotten, and the fancy box will likely have rusted/rotted away. At least under my plans the chemicals that make up my cremains can help nurture some life.

It really doesn't matter if I am 'ok' with becoming worm food after I die. Objectively, it appears that I am only a molecular machine. My life span is exactly is measured by how long this gloriously complex chemical chain reaction, that I call myself, continues to chain react. Would I prefer a universe in which rules permitted an afterlife (as so many religions claims)? Of course I would, but it doesn't appear to be true. It is far better to face the truth than persist in that fantasy no matter how comforting it might be. I see the harm in holding strong beliefs without (and often in conflict with) evidence every day.

Neither my wife nor I wish to be buried after our deaths. We have arranged to donate organs if possible, make our bodies available to science, and then to be disposed of in the most ecologically responsible way.

Imagine for a moment that it may not be true that this life is just a misery to be endured to achieve an afterlife of eternal happiness. Imagine that all of that might not be true. How horrible is it to waste this only life that a person will ever have on the idea that this is just a dress rehearsal?

Again, it seems to be TRUE that when I die I will just cease to exist and my body will rot. It is not for me to be Ok with it or not, but to accept what is most likely and live my life accordingly.

My only objection to being dumped into a landfill is that it would hurt my family. My only concern in my death is the emotional well-being of my family. I've told my husband to let my parents give me a Catholic funeral if they'd find comfort in that. After all, I'm worm food.... what do I care which worms feed off of me?

Actually, when I die, after any useful organs are harvested and put to use by people who can benefit from them, I'm donating my remains to science, so I can, even in death, be of some benefit to humanity's quest for knowledge.

But no, I do not believe that we have a 'soul', in the metaphysical sense. When we die, we are gone. All that remains of us is the memories of those who knew us and whatever effect we had on the world. No lingering spirits or afterlife.

But that does not mean that there is nothing to live for. Life itself is worth living for. I cannot understand the mindset of theists who seem to assume that this life is worthless, and only a mystical 'second life' is worthwhile.

I agree with what so many others have said, that I believe that it is better to live for this life - both for ourselves and for those around us - than to try to guess which of the myths of afterlife are true.

I would also like to add that our while we (probably) cease to exist when the electrical and chemical signals in our brains stop, that a disinclination to believe in the hereafter does not mean that we believe that the here and now is all that we live for. Many - arguably most - humanists/atheists/secularists - believe we have a responsibility to the wider human species, ecosystem and planet, and therefore to the world after our consciousness is no longer a part of it, something I think is shown by the many people who refer to their wish to donate organs for transplant and bodies to medical science and for their remains to aid rather than harm the environment.

There are already very good answers but I like to add something. We don't live for a higher power or something like this, but the good thing about that is, that you're the one who can decide what do you want to live for. There aren't some given rules which command what do you have to do or what the purpose of your existence should be.

Look at a stone. Why does this stone exist, what is the purpose of the stone? Well, there isn't any reson why it is there, it just exists. And so do we. There's no meaning or intention by a God or something.

I don't care what will happen with my body when I'm death. Because I won't have the chance to think about it. I'll be switched of, like a machine. We are nothing else then a very complicated biological machine.